


The Night that Ends at Last

by butterflybaby91



Series: It's History to Me [8]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And then to a party, F/M, They're going shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-03
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-04 05:02:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/706861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butterflybaby91/pseuds/butterflybaby91
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Courfeyrac is hosting a gala!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There will be more parts in this little story line that goes along in this modern au

“Hide me! Don’t let her find me!” Eponine screeched as she came flying into Marius’ room and threw herself into his closet, slamming the door behind her.

            A second later, Cosette ran in after Eponine and breathlessly demanded from Marius, “Where is she?” He wordlessly pointed to the closet and Cosette immediately advanced on the closed door. She started knocking and pleading with Eponine, “Come on Eponine! It’s just _shopping_!”

            Marius started laughing once he realized what was going on, but stopped abruptly when Cosette turned to glare at him as Eponine yelled, “No!”

            “Please Eponine! It’ll be fun!” Cosette countered as she started tugging on the door that Eponine was somehow holding shut from the inside.

            Eponine laughed darkly, “Like hell it’ll be,” she sneered.

            Cosette stopped tugging on the door and sighed, “I promise to let you pick out your own dress, but you _have_ to have something new to wear to the party next week!” At Cosette’s mention of dresses, Marius recalled the donor party for the museum that Courfeyrac had been organizing for weeks. They were all supposed to go and look nice and try to get alumni to donate money to help fund the museum. Marius felt grateful that he was a guy and had it easy—his suit that he had brought from home the week before was hanging in his closet all ready to go.

            That same closet door was now slowly opening as Eponine finally relented and peered around the half opened door at Cosette, “Alright,” she groaned, “If you’re determined to kill me.”

            Cosette giggled and grabbed her hand, “You’re so dramatic. It’ll be fine.” Turning to Marius she said, “We’re going to the mall; we’ll be gone a couple of hours, see you later tonight!” She then leaned over and planted a kiss on his cheek and skipped out of the room.

            Marius waved after her, but he had to laugh as Eponine turned to him as she was whisked out of the room and mouthed, “Save me!” Marius just shook his head—there was no way he was risking his own neck to get in the middle of this.

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            If Eponine was being honest, she had to admit that shopping with Cosette was really not that bad. They had gone to several stores that were much more Cosette’s style than Eponine’s and Eponine had watched while Cosette tried on a slew of dresses.

Eponine had not even bothered trying anything on in the stores that Cosette picked to go to—one look at the price tags on one of the dresses and Eponine had blanched—they were way, _way_ out of her price range. The dress Cosette picked out though was beautiful and suited her perfectly. It was a navy blue, lace sheath dress that hugged her body and dipped down a little in the back. The hem was decorated with bits of lace that overhung the lining and the sleeves were fluttery cap sleeves that were made out of the same lace that covered the rest of the dress. It looked great on her and Eponine only felt the smallest pang of jealously when she thought about how Marius was going to love that dress on Cosette.

            It had been hard for Eponine to continue hating Cosette after Marius and she had gotten together. Eponine had originally met Cosette at the beginning of freshman year when they were both in the nursing school, before Cosette had transferred to the literature major. She had immediately disliked the preppy, blonde girl who seemed to have the perfect everything and had immediately made hordes of friends, even if Eponine realized that many of those friends did not really care about Cosette herself, but were only drawn to her because she was pretty and rich.

Eponine had grown even more annoyed with the girl after one day in a biology lab, where they were dissecting something or other and Cosette and passed out flat on the floor. Eponine had judged her queasiness to be a sign of weakness and had almost laughed at the girl as others had crowded around and rushed her to the student health center. Cosette, who had determined that if she could not handle a little animal blood there, was so way she would be able to handle working in a hospital, had transferred majors the very next day.

            However, once Cosette had started dating Marius, she had made an honest effort to befriend Eponine, knowing how good a friends Marius and Eponine were. At first, Eponine had resisted and been downright cruel to the girl. Marius had, of course, been mostly oblivious to Eponine’s cruelty, but the other boys were not. One night they had sat her down and talked with her to try and make her see reason. From that night, Eponine had, little by little, started to spend more time with Cosette and she had to admit, it was nice to spend some time with another girl for once.

She had also slowly started to realize that Marius would never look at her the way he looked at Cosette and that her feelings for Marius, were really more of an obsession than actual love. They were not like the feelings that she had experienced the day that _other_ boy had tried to comfort her after Marius and Cosette had a particularly PDA filled afternoon. But, she was trying not to think about those new inklings of butterflies. And she was in no way only looking at red dresses right now, just because she knew that was _his_ favorite color.

            The girls had moved onto a store that was more in Eponine’s style and price range and she found herself immediately drawn to the rack of red dresses at the corner of the store. Usually her preferred color was purple and she was willing herself to abandon the red dress to find a purple dress, but something about one a-line, tomato color dress, that she found just spoke to her. The dress was rather plain, but it had a black belt at the waist with small studs, three-quarter length sleeves, and small slit up the back. When she tried it on, it looked great on her and Eponine mentally cursed herself when she immediately thought that maybe _he_ would like the dress.

            _I don’t care what he thinks—I don’t care what anyone thinks_ , she repeated to herself over and over again. Never the less, she found herself in line, paying for the dress. When she showed it to Cosette later, as they sat in the food court eating an early dinner, Cosette raised an eyebrow, but did not say anything more than that she thought it would look nice on Eponine and red really did suit her didn’t it?

            Eponine blushed, but just nodded and hurriedly sucked on the straw of her drink so she would not have to respond.

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            The next Saturday, Marius and Grantaire were waiting impatiently in the living room of Cosette’s apartment as the girls finished getting ready for the party. Well, Marius was impatient—he kept looking at his watch as they were just barely going to make it on time at this rate, but Grantaire was unconcerned. He had planted himself on the couch and every few minutes he was taking sips out of a flask that he had concealed in his jacket. Grantaire was accompanying Eponine to the party and Marius was driving the four over to the banquet hall where the party was being held.

            Sighing, Marius ventured half-way down the hall and called toward Cosette’s closed door, “Cosette, are you guys almost ready?”

            When heard Cosette bark an impatient “Yes!” Marius slinked back to the living room and sat down on the couch next to Grantaire.

            “Hopefully, they’ll be ready soon,” he said, “We have to leave.”

            Grantaire chuckled and threw his arm around Marius’ shoulders, “Calm down, we’ll get there on time. If not Courfeyrac will survive.”

            Marius sighed again in frustration. If it was anyone but Cosette making them late, he would be madder—he hated being late to events—but he just could not get mad at Cosette.

            Just then, they heard the slide of the bedroom door moving against the carpet and Cosette and Eponine walked out into the hallway. Both boys jumped up to see them. Marius felt his jaw drop—Cosette looked beautiful. The navy blue of her dress suited her perfectly and showed off her blonde hair and blue eyes. She waltzed up to him and kiss him on the cheek, “Sorry for being late,” she whispered in his ear.

            Marius just shook his head, “Its fine,” he replied before he encircled his arms around her waist and pulled her close, “You look beautiful,” he told her and she beamed at him.

            “What about Eponine?” she asked turning in his arms toward where Eponine stood next to Grantaire. Marius raised his head to look at her and he had to admit Eponine looked very nice too. He was not used to seeing Eponine in dresses and wearing makeup, so it was kind of a shock to see her all dressed up.

            “You looked beautiful too Eponine,” he smirked, “You clean up nice.”

            Eponine blushed and muttered, “Thanks,” and then she turned to grab her coat off the rack by the door, “Come on you love birds; let’s get going,” she teased as she lead the way out of the apartment. 


	2. The party begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strange things happen at the party

            When they reached the museum, the group was attacked by an exasperated Courfeyrac who yelled quite loudly as they entered the back door, “You’re late! I don’t have enough people here socializing with potential patrons so you four need to go out there and get us donations!” With that Courfeyrac spun on his heels and raced back into the museum, an anxious Jehan right behind him, trying to calm Courfeyrac down.

            Grantaire chuckled and bowed to Eponine, “Well my lady, should we join the festivities?”

            She laughed and took his offered hand, “Thank you, sir, that sounds lovely,” she replied in a faux-haughty voice and they glided into the party with Cosette and Marius following.

            Eponine gawked as they entered the room—Courfeyrac had out done himself. The walls were all draped in shimmery-wispy material that shimmered in the low lighting. There were fancy silver light fixtures in the shape of globes hanging low from the ceiling and they cast a soft warm glow throughout the room. There were strategically placed cocktail tables set up around the room that patrons hovered around as waiters milled about with platters of hour‘devours. There was even a quartet playing softly in the corner of the room. Everyone was dressed to the nines and Eponine had a bit of a self-conscious moment as she glanced down at her cheap dress masquerading as fancy party attire, before Grantaire whisked her away to the side of the room where several couples were dancing. It was as if he knew she was beginning to doubt herself and he interrupted those doubts before they could grow as he whispered in her ear, “You really do look beautiful.”

            All she could do was smile at him—she was grateful to have such an amazing friend as Grantaire—before she scoffed lightly and just shook her head as if to say he was being ridiculous.

            They had only been dancing for a few minutes before they saw a frazzled Courfeyrac charging toward them, “Look out here comes the charging rhino,” Eponine chuckled at her own warning as Grantaire glanced up and spotted Courfeyrac.

            He promptly dropped his hands from Eponine’s waist and muttered, “Guess we better go be social or something.” He mockingly bowed to Eponine again and took off before Courfeyrac could reach him. She saw him slinking toward the bar and she knew he would not be socializing at all as he accepted a beer from the bartender and went to hide in a corner out of Courfeyrac’s line of vision.

            Eponine let out a resigned sigh and turned to face Courfeyrac, “Eponine,” he addressed her through gritted teeth. Courfeyrac was usually a very agreeable person, but something about the weeks and stress involved in party planning, combined with his slight perfectionist street, always brought out the worst in him. “Let me introduce you to Madame Richelieu, her husband is on the board of trustees for the university,” he informed her as he steered her toward a slim middle aged woman in a green evening gown. As they approached, Courfeyrac slipped right back into his normally friendly, charming self, as he introduced Madame Richelieu to Eponine, and Eponine began telling her all about the museum and her role there.

            Eponine _hated_ fundraising parties. She hated having to be nice and social to rich snooty people just to try and get money to keep the museum opened. She always felt so out of place in this crowd. She was not from a good family or monetary situation like many of her friends were and she always felt like these patrons were able to sense that somehow, like they were looking down on her the whole time she was talking to them, seeing the poor little girl in ratty second hand clothes whose parents had forgotten to bath her for weeks at a time. Years later, even though she was clean, dressed respectfully, and away from her parents’ harsh treatment, that same shameful feeling came rushing back to her every time she went to one of these events.

            Luckily, she did not have to talk to Madame Richelieu for very long before the woman saw someone else she knew and excused herself from speaking with Eponine to go see her friend. As soon as she was alone, Eponine slumped against the cocktail table she stood next to and to soak up a few precious moments of being alone before Courfeyrac came along and forced her to talk to someone else.

            When she looked up, instead of seeing Courfeyrac hurtling toward her, Eponine saw Enjolras calmly making his way in her direction. Eponine felt her heart flutter when she saw him dressed up in a suit with a red tie. His blonde hair was slicked back and he was intently watching her. When he reached her side, Enjolras pulled her into a hug and repeated Grantaire’s assessment as he told her, “You look beautiful tonight.”

            “Thank you,” Eponine smiled up at him, suddenly, inexplicitly nervous. This was _Enjolras_ for goodness sakes. They were great friends and here she was being tongue tied in front of him. She was also surprised that he was paying attention to her at all—usually at these events he was intently focused on working for the good of the museum and tended to ignore his friends until the event was over. “Shouldn’t you be talking to all these museum patrons?” she asked teasingly as she gestured around the room, willing the butterflies in her stomach to die.

            Enjolras cleared his throat awkwardly, but did not even spare a glance for his neglected patrons, “They can wait,” he said still keeping his eyes focused on her, “I’ve been talking to them all evening,” Eponine did not really know what to say to that so she just remained incredibly interested in the table cloth that she continued to lean on as an uncomfortable silence overtook them. Suddenly Enjolras blurted, “Do you want to dance?”

            Eponine looked up at him shocked. She could not remember ever seeing Enjolras dance at one of these events. She reached up to place a hand on his forehead, “Are you ill?” she inquired, “First neglecting patrons and now wanting to dance?” As she pulled her hand away he grasped her hand and ran his thumb along the underside of her wrist.

            “Please?” he murmured softly, still staring unabashedly at Eponine. All she could do was nod and allow him to pull her onto the small dance floor. He wrapped his arms around her waist and Eponine found herself placing her arms around his neck and then they were swaying to the music. It could not really be called dancing, but they were pressed up against each other and their feet were shuffling about. If Eponine had not been so confused and nervous she probably would have laughed because Enjolras, for all his charm and charisma, danced like a pubescent middle school boy who had never kissed a girl.

            _Come to think of it,_ Eponine mused, _he probably **hasn’t**_ _kissed a girl_. She looked up at Enjolras and found him looking down at her. As their eyes met, his cheeks flushed a bit, but he did not break her gaze. They stayed that way for a long time—locked in each other’s arms stealing glances from time to time.

            Eponine wondered again why Enjolras was taking time out of his busy night to dance with her—it did not seem to be out of pity like Grantaire, otherwise he would have stopped a long time ago. But they had already been on the dance floor for multiple songs and it really was getting to be time for Enjolras to go back to wooing museum donors.

            She sighed and pulled back a bit to look up at him. He glanced down at her questioningly, “What’s wrong?” he asked.

            “Don’t you have things you have to do? You can’t spend the whole night dancing away with me,” she ribbed him. Enjolras frowned as he remembered his responsibilities. He dropped his hands from her waist and took a half step backward.

            “I guess you’re right,” he sighed and reached up to gently brush her cheek before he bent down to press a soft kiss to her forehead, “Thanks for the dance,” he smirked as he walked away leaving Eponine awkwardly gaping after him, wondering what had just happened. 


End file.
